| ADVISORY
Principles of sustainable game management Roger Draycott, Director of Advisory & Education
The principles provide a blueprint for shoots to deliver a net biodiversity gain. They are supported by all the major UK shooting and rural organisations. The principles are closely aligned with international guidelines on sustainable use of natural resources.
Why do we need these principles?
Our best practice and sustainable game management aim to deliver a net gain for biodiversity. © Laurie Campbell
GWCT promotes best practice game management as a force for good for nature conservation and environmental improvement on farmland, woodland, moorland and wetland. By establishing principles, based on science and conservation through wise use, we want to promote best practice and sustainable game management that aim to deliver a net gain for biodiversity. Biodiversity net gain is a concept that is embedded in Defra’s 25 Year Environment Plan and is an approach to land use that leads to an increase in biodiversity. The principles are designed to function and to have relevance across a wide range of interest groups from game managers and participants in game shooting, through to conservation organisations, Government and the general public.
How did we develop on them? To promote best practice, we produced a set of draft principles in autumn 2019, which were presented and discussed at over 20 private shoot briefing meetings held between autumn 2019 and spring 2020, each with an audience of approximately 30 shoots, varying in size but including some large commercial shoot operations. An online consultation, via the GWCT website was live from May to June 2020. More than 340 responses were received, with more than 90% support for the principles. We reviewed internationally agreed guidelines on sustainable use and biodiversity. Many of the principles align closely with the Bern Convention European Charter on Hunting and Biodiversity. This charter has guidelines for game managers but also regulators so that they can help game managers to benefit the conservation of biodiversity. The charter is based on two important agreements of the Convention on Biological Diversity. These are the Addis Ababa Principles and Guidelines for Sustainable use of Biodiversity and the Ecosystem Approach to Conservation (Malawi Principles). The Charter on Hunting and Biodiversity, and the Malawi and Addis Ababa Principles are supported by the IUCN (the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it). All the major UK shooting and rural organisations fully support the GWCT’s principles of sustainable game management. The principles of sustainable game management 1. Biodiversity. All shoots, whether based on wild gamebirds, released gamebirds or a combination of both, should strive to achieve a net biodiversity gain on their land. 2. Landscape. Through active management of the rural landscape, effective game management supports the growth of game populations, allowing a sustainable harvest with positive benefits for other species, while avoiding population levels which could damage other land uses such as farming, forestry and nature conservation. 3. Densities. Gamebirds should only be released and managed at densities appropriate to the local circumstances, so that there is a net environmental gain from undertaking such activity. 10 | GAME & WILDLIFE REVIEW 2020
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